Carl is an entrepreneur, writer, and philanthropist. He is the founder and funder of an AI-based startup set to launch in the spring of 2025; and the founder and funder of Prometheus Foundation, a nonprofit providing seed money to individuals and organizations who promote Ayn Rand and advance Objectivism. He is also the author of The Happiness Experiment: A Revolutionary Way to Increase Happiness. And he blogs about “love of the good for being good” at CarlBarney.com.
Jason is vice president of community at XPRIZE, a nonprofit that encourages life-enhancing innovation through multi-million-dollar prize competitions. He has worked with philanthropists and innovators in various sectors for more than twenty-five years, helping them rise as heroes shape a brighter future. Jason also serves on the board of ACT Earth, a documentary project inspiring breakthroughs in education, tech, nature, space, society, and health.
Program: Heroes of Innovation and Progress (with Thomas Walker-Werth)
Andrew holds a PhD in philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York and taught philosophy for many years at Marist College. He is the author of Heroes, Legends, Champions: Why Heroism Matters; Capitalism Unbound: The Incontestable Moral Case for Individual Rights; Capitalist Solutions; Why Johnny Still Can’t Read or Write or Understand Math: And What We Can Do About It; and myriad articles for The Objective Standard.
Program: Judging the West: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
Craig is cofounder and executive director of Objective Standard Institute, cofounder and editor in chief of The Objective Standard, and author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It, Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing, and the forthcoming Teenager’s Guide to Loving Life. His book-in-progress is on thinking in principles. And he writes at CraigBiddle.substack.com.
Program: Thinking Tools for Loving Life, Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking (with Angelica Walker-Wert and Thomas Walker-Werth), and How to Level Up All Year Long, (with Angelica Walker-Werth and Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska)
Carrie-Ann holds a BA and MA in American Studies, an MA and PhD in philosophy, and is an independent scholar, editor, and educator. She is production editor for Social Philosophy & Policy and book review editor at Reason Papers. Previously, she was an associate professor of philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College and an adolescent program manager at Higher Ground Education. Her research interests and publications range from Aristotle, Ayn Rand, citizenship, and virtue ethics to Socratic pedagogy and popular culture.
Program: Aristotle and Ayn Rand on the Nature and Art of Friendship
Tim is founder and CEO of Platform Marketing, an advertising agency specializing in real estate. He is also a cofounder and partner at the John Galt Mortgage Company. Previously he worked for The Walt Disney Company. Tim loves working, reading, and going on evening walks with his wife Bella and daughter, Rose. He cried during Toy Story 3.
Eric holds a PhD in American history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has taught history, political science, and economics at Duke University and Georgetown University. He’s also taught science to lower- and middle-schoolers. And he is currently assistant director of the Snow Institute for the Study of Capitalism at Clemson University. In addition to teaching, Eric has published articles in The Objective Standard and elsewhere on the history of monopolies, American individualism, and economic freedom.
Program: Learning for Life: A User’s Guide for the Active Mind
Ely Lassman is the CEO of XG University, a startup that will offer affordable, personalized, university-level education worldwide by leveraging LLM technology. Ely previously founded Prometheus on Campus, a nonprofit focused on promoting philosophy for freedom and happiness. He earned his degree in economics from the University of Bristol, where he also founded the UoB Liberty Society.
Justyna is an American Studies graduate and a marketing manager at Objective Standard Institute. With over five years of experience in project and social media management, she has worked with nonprofits like the Ladies of Liberty Alliance and brands such as TEDx. In her spare time, she loves to sing, trains in karate, and is a shameless cat lady.
Program: How to Level Up All Year Long (with Craig Biddle and Angelica Walker-Werth)
Timothy Sandefur holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute, where he is the vice president for legal affairs. He is the author of several books including The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law (2010), The Conscience of The Constitution (2014), The Permission Society (2016), Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man (2018), The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski: The Life and Ideas of a Popular Science Icon (2019), and Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in and Age of Darkness (2022).
Program: The Heartbreak and Heroism of Sammy Davis, Jr.
Lee is the founder and CEO of Sandstead Performance and Nutrition. A certified nutritionist and licensed cycling coach, he works with athletes at every level, from beginner to expert to Olympic hopeful. His book-in-progress, “Athlete You: Why Everyone Should Embrace Enduring Fitness and How to Do It,” aims to inspire readers to embrace a lifetime commitment to health and fitness.
Program: Highway to Health: Exercise and Nutrition for Living Your Best Life
Angelica is a fellow at Objective Standard Institute, an assistant editor and writer for The Objective Standard, and an Ayn Rand Fellow with Foundation for Economic Education’s Hazlitt Project. Her roles at OSI include developing and teaching courses, managing the junior fellowship and LevelUp scholarship programs, and mentoring students and junior fellows. She writes about philosophic ideas in fictional works at Fictionosophy.substack.com.
Program: Fiction as Soul-Fuel: Why Stories Move Us, Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking (with Craig Biddle and Thomas Walker-Werth), How to Level Up All Year Long (with Craig Biddle and Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska), and
Thomas is associate editor at The Objective Standard and a fellow at both Objective Standard Institute and Foundation for Economic Education. His book-in-progress, “Reason for Living: A Rational Approach to Living Your Best Life,” will be published in the spring of 2025. He blogs at ReasonForLiving.substack.com.
Program: Facts and Myths About Independence, Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking (with Craig Biddle and Angelica Walker-Werth), and Heroes of Innovation and Progress (with Jason Bateman)
Kiyah is a fellow at Objective Standard Institute focusing on cultural trends and their causes and consequences. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kiyah worked as a data analyst before transitioning to philosophy. Her hobbies include hiking, playing with her boxer, Apollo, and writing for her Substack. You can find her advocating reason, individualism, and liberty on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok (@GrowingToTruth).
Program: Liberalism vs. Nationalism: Which Road Leads to Freedom?
Speakers are subject to change.
LevelUp 2025: Program Description
How to Get the Most out of LevelUp
Craig and Sarah Biddle
Thinking Tools for Loving Life
Craig Biddle
What if you had a toolkit for building a beautiful life? Rational philosophy offers exactly that: practical ideas to help you think clearly, choose your goals and relationships wisely, and follow through on what’s best for you.
Craig Biddle will discuss several high-leverage thinking tools, showing how you can use them to thrive in every area of life—from education and career, to friendships and romance, to recreational and leisure activities, to the general care of your body and mind. You’ll be better equipped to navigate life’s complexities with confidence and purpose.
Facts and Myths About Independence
Thomas Walker-Werth
Does living independently mean cutting off all reliance on other people? Does thinking independently mean only accepting ideas you came up with on your own? Or is there a more sensible approach to the virtue at hand?
Thomas Walker-Werth will address common misconceptions about independence, zeroing in on what it means to rely on and live by the judgment of your mind, and offering practical advice for applying this virtue to great effect in the various areas of your life.
Aristotle and Ayn Rand on the Nature and Art of Friendship
Carrie-Ann Biondi
Do you want friends who add joy and meaning to your life—friends who are supportive, encouraging, and good for you (rather than neutral, draining, or toxic)? If so, Aristotle and Ayn Rand offer advice you’ll want to hear.
What is friendship? What are its elements? Whom should you befriend? How should you treat friends? How should they treat you? When should you end a friendship—and how?
Carrie-Ann Biondi will discuss select passages from Aristotle and Rand that address such questions, providing practical ideas you can use to foster good friendships today and for the rest of your life.
Judging the West: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
Andrew Bernstein
Critics of the West claim that Western culture is responsible for slavery, imperialism, sexism, genocide, global warming, cruelty to animals, and just about every bad thing you can think of. Western culture, these critics conclude, is uniquely evil. But does an objective examination of history support such claims? What is the truth—the whole truth—about the West?
Andrew Bernstein will address these and related questions, surveying the West’s virtues and vices, its essential characteristics, and the principles by which to judge a culture—any culture—objectively, justly, fairly.
Walt Disney and the Business of Creativity
Tim Chermak
Ever so rarely, a businessman comes along who is so creative that he redefines entrepreneurship. Walt Disney was such a man. He not only reimagined and improved existing business models; he invented entire industries and created profitable enterprises in categories that previously didn’t exist. And he infused all of his projects and creations with a sense of wonder and imagination—which he preserved from his childhood and fostered throughout his life.
Tim Chermak will zero in on what made Disney Disney, and how he built an empire of dreams, innovation, and joy.
AI and the Future of Higher Education
Carl Barney
Imagine a professor—nay, a whole university of them—dedicated exclusively to your personalized education. These professors have read every book on every subject ever written. They know every argument ever offered for every position ever taken. They have infinite interest and patience in discussing ideas with you. And they are fully dedicated to helping you sharpen your mind and succeed in life.
Would you like such an education? You’ll soon be able to have it. Carl Barney will discuss how AI is revolutionizing higher education and creating opportunities unimaginable just a few years ago.
Fiction as Soul-Fuel: Why Stories Move Us
Angelica Walker-Werth
Reading a novel is, for many people, more enjoyable than reading a history book. Likewise for watching a movie versus watching the news. And fictional characters, plots, and themes can be far more enjoyable and more motivating than their real-life equivalents.
Why? What is it about fiction that moves us so deeply?
Angel Walker-Werth will address these questions, focusing on the effects of both life-serving ideas and life-throttling ideas in fiction, and the ways in which reading stories or watching movies can foster deeper understanding of our world and ourselves, and greater enjoyment of life.
Q&A on Philosophy and Independent Thinking
Craig Biddle, Angelica Walker-Werth, and Thomas Walker-Werth
Do people really have free will? Can morality truly be objective? Is certainty or absolute knowledge possible? Is there any role for faith in life? How about sacrifice? Might God exist? Are rights real or made up? Should immigration be restricted? How about abortion?
If you are active-minded, you ask these kinds of questions—and you want to know what’s true. The panelists in this Q&A, however, will not focus on what is true. Rather, they will focus on the method by which you can discover for yourself what is true.
Bring your hard or pressing questions, and get ready for a deep, illuminating discussion about philosophy and independent thinking.
Liberalism vs. Nationalism: Which Road Leads to Freedom?
Kiyah Willis
The United States of America was founded to protect individual rights: life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These ideas made America the prosperous society it is today. Yet, many Americans are turning against these values in favor of Nationalism, an ideology that condones violating rights for the sake of the collective nation. Why? What are the principles of Nationalism? And why has it become so popular today?
Kiyah Willis will address these questions and make the case for liberalism as the philosophy that will truly make America great again. (Although this talk will focus on American culture and politics, the ideas apply universally.)
The Heartbreak and Heroism of Sammy Davis, Jr.
Timothy Sandefur
Sammy Davis, Jr., was not only “the greatest entertainer in the world,” as he was called during his lifetime; he was also a civil rights pioneer who shattered racial and cultural barriers in the entertainment industry. But his life was tragically mixed. In addition to overcoming immense challenges, he suffered a tragic weakness that nearly ruined his life. Timothy Sandefur will commemorate Davis’s 100th birthday by examining his extraordinary life—and the lessons we can learn from his virtues and flaws.
Heroes of Innovation and Progress
Jason Bateman and Thomas Walker-Werth
Over the centuries, and up to the present, men and women of the mind have discovered truths, developed technologies, and created the goods and services that, combined, make human life in our time seem miraculous in comparison to any other. Such thinkers and producers continue transforming our world and our lives today.
Who are these people? How do they do what they do? Why do they do it? And what, if anything, do we owe them? Jason Bateman and Thomas Walker-Werth will discuss these and related questions.
AI and Philosophy: Flourishing in Our New Age
Ely Lassman
As artificial intelligence reshapes our world, fundamental questions about consciousness, knowledge, and purpose take on new urgency. Is AI conscious? Could it develop consciousness? How much does it truly know? Will the mass adoption of AI lead to a human crisis of purpose? Will it lead to our demise? Or might it be the most life-serving technology ever created?
Ely Lassman will explore philosophical frameworks that can help us navigate the AI revolution, enrich our understanding of both human and machine intelligence, and leverage this technology to enhance our lives.
Highway to Health: Exercise and Nutrition for Living Your Best Life
Lee Sandstead
Modern lifestyles involve a lot of sitting, using screens, and using our minds. But we are not merely minds. We are minds integrated with bodies. And taking good care of both aspects of this integrated whole is essential to thriving.
How can you get or stay physically fit so you can make the most of your life and enjoy it to the fullest? Lee Sandstead will address this and related questions, focusing on both the Athletic Component (AC) of fitness and the Dietary Component (DC), providing strategies and tactics for getting and staying fit for flourishing.
Learning for Life: A User’s Guide for the Active Mind
Eric Daniels
Flourishing requires life-long learning: the active use of your mind to understand the world and your needs throughout your years and decades. But there is so much to learn! And you can’t learn it all. How can you best select what to focus on? And how can you learn it most efficiently and effectively?
Eric Daniels will examine the principles involved in self-directed learning, difficulties inherent in the process, and strategies for constantly expanding your knowledge for improving your life.
How to Level Up All Year Long
Craig Biddle, Angelica Walker-Werth, and Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska
Would you like to improve your life year-round? You can. And OSI can help.
Join us for this final session of LevelUp 2025 to learn how you can take advantage of various opportunities to excel in life, defend liberty on solid ground, and engage regularly with others who do so, too. The panelists will discuss how you can continue sharpening your mind with OSI’s programs, courses, and conferences; how you can constantly expand and improve your social and professional network; and how you can love your life more and more and more.
The program is subject to change.